Federal law enforcement officers fired multiple shots at two locations along Pennsylvania Avenue NW on Thursday, killing an apparently unarmed woman who resisted arrest while attempting to drive through security barriers near the White House and the Capitol.

A 1-year-old girl in the woman’s car was reportedly unharmed.

That account was provided by officials in charge of the Capitol Police and the U.S. Secret Service, who lauded their officers for “acting heroically,” as D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier put it. They noted that one officer from each agency had been injured in the pursuit but stressed that the woman was unable to penetrate the inner rings of security guarding President Obama and members of Congress.

The dramatic chase cast a spotlight on a pair of federal law enforcement agencies that have been facing increased scrutiny and demands since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Yet both have suffered budget cuts as part of the mandatory spending reductions known as the sequester and have worked without pay for long hours during the government shutdown.

They also have been on alert in recent weeks. On the day that a gunman killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard last month, Secret Service officers tackled a man who threw firecrackers on the White House lawn.

Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) told ABC News that it is “a national disgrace” that the Capitol Police are not being paid during the shutdown.

Law enforcement officials dismissed suggestions that the officers might have overreacted to a driver who was merely lost or had panicked. Video recorded by bystanders showed five officers pointing their guns at the car from both sides of the vehicle. The driver managed to pull the car forward and slip past and was chased by another police car, the video shows.

Lanier, who is overseeing an investigation of the incident, dismissed a question from a reporter about whether the chase might have been the result of an accident by a confused driver. The D.C. police chief noted the “lengthy pursuit” that stretched several blocks and the driver’s attempt to breach security at two checkpoints.

Former Secret Service agents said the officers observed proper protocol. They said there are three rings of security around the president at all times — exterior, interior and inner — which grow successively tighter.

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Shots fired at the Capitol

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A woman was shot and killed after leading police on a car chase from the White House to the U.S. Capitol.

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Federal agents trying to stop the black Infiniti speeding between the White House and the U.S. Capitol fired seven shots at its unarmed driver, who had a toddler in the car with her, an uncommon tactic that occurred during a highly unusual chase.

Oct. 4, 2013 Amy Carey-Jones, center, the sister of Miriam Carey, speaks to the news media outside the home of her sister Valarie, second from left, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Law enforcement authorities identified Miriam Carey, 34, as the woman who, with a 1-year-old child in her car, led Secret Service officers and police on a harrowing chase Thursday from the White House past the Capitol, attempting to penetrate the security barriers at both national landmarks before being shot to death, police said. The child survived.John Minchillo/AP

Witnesses said the woman drove through a White House checkpoint at 15th and E streets NW but quickly turned her car around after encountering concrete barriers arranged in an angled fashion to prevent vehicles from slamming directly into them.

The driver then knocked down an off-duty agent before speeding toward the Capitol.

W. Ralph Basham, who was the Secret Service director under President George W. Bush, said the officers should not be second-guessed for shooting to stop the driver.

“You can’t get in this person’s mind to determine what she was trying to do,” he said Thursday.

Ed O’Keefe is a congressional reporter who has covered congressional and presidential politics since 2008. He previously covered federal agencies, the federal workforce and spent a brief time covering the war in Iraq. Follow @edatpost.

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